Me

My name is Jason Carrow and I'm currently working at John Cabot sixth form, this is my blog where I will be posting all of my research notes and assignments for my Product Design A-level class.













Thursday 16 January 2014

Metals theory

Iron
Iron is converted from its ore by putting it into a furnace and removing the oxygen that is mixed within the ore, this is a process called smelting. This is done by putting the charcoal into the furnace which produces the heat you need to start the reaction by reacting with the oxygen from the ore. The impurities in the ore will form a later of slag. When removed, you are left with a greyish metal once it has cooled. Iron is often combined with carbon giving it a greater strength. By doing this, you are left with a combined material called steel.

Steel
Steel is an alloy of iron and a small amount of carbon. Carbon has  between 0.002% and 2.1%Carbon, Too little content of carbon content leaves the iron quite soft, ductile and weak. Carbon contents higher than those of steel make an alloyed that is brittle but not malleable. Also, alloying steel with other metals creates properties such as increased toughness and resistance to corrosion.

Carbon
Carbon can create Coal and diamond; they have different structures because of the pressure that is applied on them. The amount of carbon in steel increases the strength and hardness, but adding to much carbon can cause the metal to become brittle and break easily.


Iron & Carbon
Iron is normally soft and ductile, which alone, doesn’t make it a useful material to use. When you add carbon in a mixture with the iron, the characteristics are enhanced and the properties change, this can be good but bad in some ways. Increasing the amount of Carbon in the mixture can have different outcomes such as, The material will become a lot harder but the toughness reduces and can become brittle. Certain metals that have carbon in them can have their characteristics enhanced further by being heat treated, these include High carbon steel and medium carbon steel. The heat treating of the metal makes them become stronger, and harder.

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